Porto

Walked a whopping 6.5 km today 😂 Hey, I haven't started walking my Camino yet, OK? Don't JUDGE me!

While I was having the free continental breakfast (read: rolls and corn flakes, which sounds like the name of a band now that I think about it) in my hostel I discovered a free, 3-hour tour of Porto. Last time I watched a show about a 3-hour tour it didn't end so well.

This, however, was a walking tour and not a ship tour. I am grateful for our guide, Gonzalo, who provided some amazing information on the history of Portugal as well as suggestions on where and what to eat. He was hilariously amusing! He was also very quick to intervene when a man came RUNNING full speed at me while I was taking some video of a hazing ritual for the local university students. The man did not want me to take video because there were minors in the group. The problem here is...they were LITERALLY walking down the middle of a public street. In a tourist city. EVERYONE had their phones out! The guy was dressed like a Harry Potter student, cape and all. After Gonzalo inserted himself between us and "diffused" the situation - mostly by yelling back and forth in Portuguese with the other guy while both of them went red in the face - he told me J. K. Rowling lived in Porto for a couple years, and that's where she'd gotten the inspiration for the Hogwart's uniform. He was still huffy as he told me the story (we were on a 15-minute break when it happened).

After the walking tour, which ended at the Duoro river, I headed back to Sé Catedral to pick up my pilgrim passport. This looks like a regular passport, except you collect stamps from all the places you go along the Way - cafes, hostels, stores, churches, whatever. The municipal albergues don't let you stay there if you don't have a pilgrim passport.

I walked up WAY too many flights of stairs on the way up there. I was up ABOVE the roofs of the houses. My legs hurt and I had to stop twice. Not because, y'know, I was out of breath or anything. Just to look at the river. Really.

When I finished, my back and legs hurt so you can IMAGINE my chagrin and the big-ass face-palm I did when I saw a freaking elevator at the top. 🙄

The Cathedral was beautiful from the outside but I opted not to take the tour. I just went in to buy my passport and shell (the symbol of the Camino, worn by all pilgrims while they walk their Way) and wandered around the city for a bit, looking at all the local vendors when I returned to the river. So many things I wanted to buy, but there are too many miles ahead of me to carry them all so I will save my money for the shell tattoo I'm going to get when I reach Santiago de Compostela.

For dinner I walked to a little cafe down the road, where I had a simple meal: tomato, mozzarella and basil sandwich and - DRUMROLL, PLEASE - pastel de nata. Pastel de nata, for those who are wondering, is an mouthgasmic experience. It's some kind of egg custard tart. It sounds underwhelming but I assure you that once you have one you will move to Portugal, as I am now considering doing 😂

It was beautiful weather at dinner time, so I sat outside to eat. I watched all the people go by; some were dressed very nicely, probably scurrying to catch the metro home while others were dressed casually and meandered around.

The worst part about sitting outside is the smokers. I know people smoke all over the world. I just wish the smoke wasn't so INVASIVE - it STICKS in your hair and clothes. Kind of like a really bad fart, except it wasn't your fault but you're still stuck with it.

So despite having showered and changed before dinner, I had to repeat the process when I got back to my bunk. What irritated me most was that I had to do more laundry. It's all done by hand and hung carefully on the underside of the upper bunk to dry.

All in all, not a bad day. As I come and go in the hostel I'm watching the "leave box" where pilgrims leave things behind when they're done. I'm hoping someone will leave walking sticks but so far, no luck. Just three umbrellas, which makes sense because it was pouring rain here last week.

***Today's expenses (I keep losing receipts so I'm going to start documenting here):

€6 for lunch and coffee
€3 for gelato
€8 for dinner and dessert
€4 for Camino and shell

Total: €21

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